


you outshine the morning sun

by eelisabethh



Series: you have warmed my heart like the sun [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 11:23:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16853107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eelisabethh/pseuds/eelisabethh
Summary: Pepper isverypregnant, and finally goes into labor. Tony isn't home. Neither is Happy. That leaves Peter to drive her to the hospital. Cue the chaos and a type of love none of them have felt before.





	you outshine the morning sun

**Author's Note:**

> title from "dear theodosia" from hamilton

Her due date had been last week, and tomorrow she had an appointment just to make sure the baby was okay, and to see if medically induced labor would be beneficial. In other words; Pepper was _so_ pregnant. She wanted this kid out as soon as possible, and had tried everything. Spicy food, sex (Tony was very happy to be of help), evening primrose oil, acupuncture, date fruit, yoga. You name it, she’d tried it.

When Tony was called to an emergency meeting, he was very hesitant to leave his wife. “Morgan seems to be taking her time. I don’t think she’ll want out today,” Pepper assured him, one hand on her stomach and the other on her aching lower back.

“But—”

“But nothing. It’s only a couple hours. Besides, Peter is here with me,” he waved from the couch, “so if anything happens - which it won’t - he can take me to the hospital. It’s fine honey.”

Tony nodded reluctantly. “I’ll be back before you know it, okay?” He kissed Pepper, lingering for a second. “I love you,” he smiled sweetly.

“Love you, too,” Pepper chuckled, moving to sit down next to Peter.

“Bye, kid! Take care of my wife!” He pointed at him with a fake serious look on his face.

“Bye, Tony,” Peter laughed, helping Pepper sit down comfortably.

Hearing Peter call him by his first name always made him feel happy. It had started soon after everyone came back from the snap, and he loved it.

Again, he struggled at the thought of leaving Pepper when he approached Happy in the garage. “She’ll be fine,” the man said, as if he had read Tony’s mind.

“I know.”

* * *

After Peter had asked her three times, Pepper admitted to be craving brownies. And Peter was just happy to be able to help in any way, so he was standing in the kitchen, humming, while mixing together the ingredients. Regularly, he walked back to the living room to make sure Pepper was as comfortable as possible. She loved how caring Peter was with her, and knew he’d be the best big brother Morgan could ever have.

“I’m fine, Peter,” she said for the fifth time in fifteen minutes, ruffling his hair fondly as he was kneeling next to the couch.

“Alright,” he giggled and went back to the kitchen to put the brownies in the oven. Pepper smiled at his behavior, and an amusing moment on the TV pulled a soft laugh out of her mouth. The laugh came to a sudden stop when she felt pain she hadn’t felt at all throughout the pregnancy. There had been a murmuring pain the entire day, but nothing bad until this.

With his enhanced senses, of course Peter noticed. “Pepper? Are you okay?” he asked, closing the oven, setting the timer. No answer, just a groan. “Pepper?” He rushed over to see her leaning her head back, breathing hard while holding her stomach with one hand on each side.

“Is it- is it time?” Peter asked nervously.

“I think so,” she moaned painfully. He didn’t have to go running for the bag with everything she’d need at the hospital; that had been standing right by the elevator for two weeks now. Peter went to grab her hands to help her up, but she shook her head with a distorted smile on her face.

“Remember what I told you and Tony?”

“No?! You tell us things all the time!” Peter fretted, concern taking over his face.

“We have to time the contractions. One minute long, four minutes apart, okay?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right.”

“We just have to wait for the next one- nope, there it is!”

Peter held his phone in one hand to time it and let Pepper squeeze the other. She breathed through it, her eyes closed.

“Okay, I think this one’s over,” she panted.

“50 seconds.”

Again, Peter had started the timer, but not even twenty seconds later, Pepper exclaimed. “Oh!” The boy was about to ask what had happened, but didn’t need to when he saw the couch darken in color between her legs.

“Your water broke. Hospital now,” Peter said, and Pepper agreed completely. He helped her up carefully, wrapping a gentle arm around her for support. Slowly, they made it to the elevator, Peter making sure not to forget the bag.

“Keys!” he exclaimed, putting his hand out to stop the elevator door and sprinted to get them from the bowl in the kitchen where he had put them. When he got back, Pepper spoke up.

“FRIDAY, the garage, please.”

“Of course, ma’am.”

The elevator moved to slowly for Peter’s taste, but Pepper kept remarkably calm the entire way down. They knew exactly which car to go for; a very casual looking family car with a baby car seat in the back. It had all been planned down to the last detail.

They had even organized everything with the hospital, to which Peter called once he was out on the road. With the codeword “eccentric uncle” he got a confirmation that everything would be ready for them. “Thank you,” he said before hanging up.

“How’re you doing, Pepper?” he asked, eyes flicking over at her whenever possible.

“I’m about to be ripped in half, but that’s okay, just- ow- just get us there.” That he could do. He had actually tested which route would be fastest and was approaching the hospital soon enough. A small crew of a doctor, two nurses and a midwife stood waiting for them with a wheelchair. Peter parked right by them, hurrying around the car to help Pepper out. Once she was settled in the wheelchair, he turned to get the bag, locked the car, and followed them inside. They went through a side door - anything to make sure no one would figure out where they were.

The boy took calming breaths as he walked in the back of the group, relieved that Pepper was in good care and that he didn’t have to worry. He had gone through this in his head a countless amount of times, but now that it was actually happening, it was completely different.

In their room, Peter turned around when a nurse helped Pepper change into a hospital gown before helping her get her up on the bed. Another contraction hit just as her head hit the pillow. She lifted it back up again, hissing in pain, and the nurse pressed a button, making the bed move so Pepper was in a halfway sitting position.

“Tony,” Peter remembered, pulling his phone up. Just like back home, he held that in one hand while Pepper claimed the other one. Perhaps he should’ve waited to make that call until the contraction had stopped because the first thing Tony heard when he picked up was his wife yelling out in pain. This was exactly what wasn’t supposed to happen.

“The baby’s coming,” Peter told him, but he was already on his way out, Happy right behind him.

“I’m there in ten minutes. Take care of her for me until then, kid.” At that, he hung up, flinging himself into the driver's seat, mission clear in his head: get to his wife and his kids. Happy was a little hesitant to let him drive, but wisely kept quiet and got in the passenger seat.

“Tony’s on his way,” Peter said, earning a smile from Pepper. She rode out the rest of the contraction before turning her head towards him.

“You’re handling this so well, sweetheart,” she praised him with a hand on his cheek, her forehead covered with a sheen of sweat. They could both tell the other one was over the moon with happiness.

A woman entered the room, Peter recognized her from outside. Pepper had met her before with Tony when they had planned the birth. The two of them knew everyone on the team by name. “Hello, Pepper. Your little girl finally decided to come out?”

“Yes, finally,” she smiled, and gestured to Peter. “This is Peter, I’ve told you about him.”

“Of course. Hello, Peter, my name’s Lisa, I’m a midwife,” she introduced herself with a warm smile, shaking his hand.

“Okay, let’s have a look,” Lisa said, taking a pair of gloves from a medical table and put them on. She sat down on a chair at the end of the bed, lifting the gown to do an inspection. “Almost five centimeters, and everything is looking good.”

Standing back up, she disposed of the latex gloves before looking at Pepper. “Is there anything you need? Food? Water?”

“Just water, please.”

“Feeling nauseous?”

“Thankfully not yet, at least.”

“Alright, water it is then.”

“There’s a bottle in the bag,” Peter remembered, and got out of his chair. He rummaged around in the bag until he found it, handing it to Lisa.

“I’ll be right back,” she said as she walked out of the door.

Another contraction made Pepper’s face scrunch up, and Peter was back to holding her hand in a matter of seconds. That woman could squeeze hard, and he felt a little bad for Tony who’d have to sit through hours of that. But he didn’t mind at all. He was so excited to finally meet Morgan. When they had told him they were having a baby, he had cried of pure joy, momentarily scaring Tony. But Pepper had understood, and just engulfed him in a hug with happy tears of her own running down her face. The moment was completed by a teary eyed Tony who had wrapped his arms around both of them.

Lisa came back with the bottle a few seconds before the contraction came to a stop. She handed it to Peter who held it out for Pepper to take a sip. “Thank you,” she said to both of them before Lisa stepped out again. A few moments of silence passed before they heard footsteps running towards the room. They smiled knowingly at each other before looking up when the door opened revealing a winded Tony Stark.

Immediately, Peter got up to give his seat to Tony who looked at him gratefully. “You did good, kid,” he grinned as he ruffled his hair. Then he looked at his wife, going straight to kiss her stomach. “Some timing you have,” he whispered to it, making Pepper giggle. He kissed her lips next and sat down in the chair next to her. One hand stroked her hair and the other held hers. “Did he panic?” he asked lightheartedly, referring to Peter who rolled his eyes playfully.

“You know what, actually? I think he was calmer than you would’ve been,” she smirked.

“Worst thing is, you’re probably right,” he admitted, making all three of them laugh.

“I’ll be in the waiting room. Do you want me to call anyone?”

“That would be lovely, Peter,” Pepper answered, glad that she and Tony would have one less thing to worry about.

“Call your aunt and Rhodey. He should be at the compound with the others so no need to call every single one of them,” Tony instructed with a soft smile on his face, eyes flicking between Peter and Pepper.

“Got it. You know where I am when you need me.”

The hospital had turned the room across the hall into a private waiting room. Some of the people that they wanted to be there would certainly attract attention if they were sitting in a waiting room where anyone could see them.

Peter called Aunt May first. “Hello, Peter,” she answered after the fourth ring.

“May! The baby’s coming!” he announced, barely able to contain his excitement.

“Oh, that’s great news! I get off in two hours, I’ll come right down to you guys then.” May worked in the same hospital, but in a different part of it. It was very convenient.

“Okay, see you then!”

“Call me if anything happens and I’ll see if I can come a little earlier, okay?”

“I promise.”

When he hung up, he didn’t waste any time to call Rhodey, who picked up almost immediately.

“Peter, what’s up?” the man answered.

“Baby’s coming,” he said, just as excited this time.

“Wow! Okay, we’ll be there as soon as we can. Everything going smoothly?”

“Yeah, I think so. Pepper’s doing good, and Tony is panicking even though he won’t admit it.”

“Sounds about right,” Rhodey chuckled. “I’ll tell the rest and we’ll be there in a couple of hours. Bye, Peter.”

“Bye, Rhodey!”

The snap had brought the Avengers closer together. So close in fact that Steve and Bucky were among those who would walk through the hospital doors in a while, along with Rhodey, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Wanda, Vision and Thor and Loki if they were on earth. Peter had forgotten to ask.

He sat down in one of the many chairs in the waiting room, wondering where Happy was. Getting food maybe? At the thought of food, Peter’s eyes widened in horror. He tapped his ear piece. “FRIDAY?”

“Yes, Peter?”

“The brownies,” he groaned.

“No need to worry, I turned off the oven when the timer was done.”

“Oh, thank fuck,” he mumbled, relaxing again. Had Tony been in the room, he would’ve scolded him lightly for swearing. Peter smiled at the thought.

The door opened, and Happy came inside with a few pizza boxes in his arms. “We’re gonna be here for a while and I thought this would be better than bland hospital food,” he said as he put them down on the table and sat down in a chair across from Peter.

“You won’t ever hear me complaining about pizza. Good choice, Happy.” He opened one of the boxes, grabbed a slice and took a large bite.

“Hungry as always,” Happy chuckled and grabbed a slice for himself. Peter just shrugged happily, his mouth full of food.

Having finished his slice, he stood up. “I’ll get something to drink from the vending machine. What do you want?” he asked Happy, who thought about it for a second before deciding that “a coke would be good.”

“Coming right up,” he joked as he exited the room. Peter got Happy’s coke and a Fanta for himself before going back into the room. “Here you go.” He handed the bottle to Happy.

“Thanks, kid.”

Excitement buzzed throughout his entire body as he continued eating. He could tell Happy was excited too, even though he tried acting normal. The two sat mostly in silence for the next hour, eating. When they did talk, it was about the baby, mostly Peter rambling about what it’s going to be like.

A knock on the door made Happy get up. He opened the door only a little to see who was there, but opened it completely when he saw it was just May. She gave him a short hug.

About a year ago, Tony had convinced May and Peter to move to the tower. Pepper, Tony, Peter, May and Happy had become some sort of a family. The other Avengers spent most of their time at the compound upstate, but it wasn’t a rarity for them to travel into town for a visit or the other way around. So, really, they were one big, dysfunctional, happy family. And now there was another addition on her way.

“I didn’t think you’d be here for another hour,” Peter said, a little confused as she crushed him in a hug.

“Well, they let me go a little earlier. Didn’t wanna risk missing anything,” she grinned. “Oh, pizza! I’m starving.” She sighed in pleasure when she took her first bite, and kept eating until she was stuffed, talking with Peter in between bites.

“Tell me what’s happened so far. Did you ride with them here?” May asked, wiping her mouth with a napkin.

Peter smirked. “Actually, Tony and Happy weren’t home, so it was just me and Pepper. I drove us here.”

“Really? How was that?”

“I was a little scared at first, but everything went well. And, in the words of Pepper herself, Tony would most likely have been more panicked than what I was,” he laughed.

“I don’t doubt it. I’m proud of you, honey.” Peter blushed a little at that, and reached for another slice of pizza.

The three of them sat there, talking about what it was going to be like with little Morgan around. Eventually, May fell asleep against Peter’s shoulder, having been at work for hours. She slept until there was another knock at the door, and Happy opened it while Peter woke his aunt up. Rhodey, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Steve, Bucky, Wanda and Vision walked in, sitting down in chairs after everyone had greeted each other with hugs. Apparently Thor and Loki weren’t around

Peter got to repeat his story about driving Pepper down there and now with everyone there, they talked even more about what life would be like with Morgan. Everyone was excited, most of them would never have their own children, and were delighted at the thought of a baby being a part of their lives.

With the room full of superheroes, the remaining, now cold, pizza disappeared quickly, so Happy ordered even more, going outside to pick it up when delivery arrived. He could’ve just picked it up himself, but it was clear that he didn’t want to leave the hospital in case anything happened while he was gone.

Conversation flowed just as easily as ever as the hours passed. Eventually, some started dozing off, prompting those still awake to lower their voices so as not to disturb them.

Those who had fallen asleep was awoken abruptly when Tony burst into the room, tears on his cheeks and happier than anyone had ever seen him. “She’s here,” he announced. “Peter, you wanna come meet her first?” he asked, and the boy stood up immediately, following him back into the room where he had sat with Pepper many hours earlier.

“Hi, Peter,” she smiled, looking very tired but just as happy as Tony.

“Hi,” Peter whispered, walking over to her when Tony gently pushed him forward. With each step, he got closer to crying and when he finally looked at the little girl bundled up in Pepper’s arms, he couldn’t stop the tears. He was so, so, so happy. “Hi, Morgan.” His smile was so wide as he touched her for the first time, gently stroking her cheek.

“Do you wanna hold her?” Pepper asked, and Peter nodded vigorously, sitting down in the chair when Tony lifted Morgan up. He held his arms out for his little sister and cradled her gently to him when he had her.

“Hey, sweetie, my name’s Peter,” he whispered to her, rocking her very lightly. He realized he had never loved anything or anyone as much as he loved her, vowing to himself that he would protect her forever. Morgan made very small sounds that he listened intently to, never wanting to forget that moment. Tony made sure his phone was on silent and captured his kids meeting for the first time on both film and photo. Peter cooing gently at her, even singing her a song. Pepper looked at them as if they were her entire world and reached for Tony’s hand. He sat down on the bed and just watched them with her. Nothing could have prepared him for all those feelings

“I’ll go get the others,” he said after a few minutes had passed, knowing they were waiting anxiously to come in. Peter didn’t even look up, his full attention on his tiny little sister and he gasped when she yawned, stunned at how adorable she was.

When all the rest piled into the room, Peter looked up at them, a huge smile on his face, the occasional tear still rolling down his cheeks. He made eye contact with Rhodey, then with Tony who nodded, knowing what he meant. “Do you wanna hold her?” Peter asked him, making Rhodey smile even brighter as he stepped forward, wiping away a few tears. There wasn’t a single dry eye in the room. Tony gently lifted Morgan from Peter’s arms, handing her to Rhodey. The boy who until just a few minutes ago had been the youngest of them all got up and walked over to his aunt. She put an arm around him, leaning on his shoulder.

They stood and watched as Morgan was passed around the room. Vision was a little awkward with her, no one had ever seen Natasha as soft as when she held that baby, Clint was, of course, a natural, Steve loved her instantly, Wanda spoke to her in Sokovian, Bruce laughed when she let out a sneeze in his arms, and Bucky was very hesitant. Because of his metal arm. “It’s okay, Buck, I promise,” Steve tried to reassure him, trying to hand her over to him.

“I’m not so sure.”

“Bucky,” Pepper said, catching his attention. “I trust you with her. I know you won’t hurt her,” she told him, and the look in her eyes spoke volumes of how much she meant it. That softened Bucky up, but he didn’t put his arms out before he had looked at Tony who nodded in approval.

When he had her in his arms, he cried a little. It was the first time in a long time he had held something so fragile and innocent. And he absolutely loved it, already planning in his head all the fun things they would do together. He wanted to be a fun uncle. Not surprisingly, that’s what everyone else was thinking about, too. How much happiness this little girl had brought them in just a few minutes and how many great times they were going to have with her. With little Morgan.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/txnysheart) and [tumblr](https://txnysheart.tumblr.com/) as well!!


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